Child Life Specialist I

Child Life Specialist

Seeking an experienced child life specialist to cover our 19 bed PICU. This role provides psychosocially and developmentally based assessment and support to infants, children, youth and families in the healthcare setting. Services are provided to children from infancy to twenty-one years of age. This role supports the social, emotional, intellectual and physical needs of children and families in healthcare settings through direct intervention and advocacy regarding their psychosocial needs.

This role assesses children's developmental and coping needs and implements developmentally appropriate therapeutic interventions such as play, medical play, psychological preparation, and rehearsed coping to minimize distress associated with the health care environment and to foster resiliency. This role teaches, supervises and evaluates the work of volunteers and Child Life clinical placement students. This role collaborates with the interdisciplinary team and the community to promote patient and family centered care and to foster positive hospital-community relations.

Work Experience

Patient and Family Care

1. Assesses the developmental and psychosocial needs of infants, children, youth, and families.

a. Effectively utilizes information from the child and family and observations of development, coping styles, play, and affect as a basis for assessment and to formulate an individualized plan of care.

b. Demonstrates ability to be flexible with chosen intervention strategies to adapt to the needs of the child and family.

2. Fosters safe, therapeutic and healing environments to minimize stress, maximize coping, and facilitate normative development in the healthcare setting.

a. Differentiates between therapeutic and non-therapeutic relationships and maintain therapeutic boundaries with infants, children, youth and families.

b. Initiates collaboration with the healthcare team to provide developmentally appropriate procedural preparation and education to children and families.

c. Utilizes educational materials and contributes to the developmental of new educational materials/methods of teaching for both child/family and staff.

d. Identifies child and family learning needs and any barriers to teaching. Uses resources available to adapt to child/family needs. Communicates needs to healthcare team.

e. Facilitates planning, rehearsal, implementation, and evaluation of coping strategies to facilitate adaptive coping.

f. Utilizes appropriate non-pharmacological pain management strategies.

g. Facilitates developmentally appropriate play as a primary tool to decrease distress, provide enjoyment and comfort, enhance mastery, and promote healing.

h. Facilitates supportive education and therapeutic interventions to address death and dying.

i. Creates concise, objective and accurate clinical notes, documenting information pertinent to the plan of care and consistent with program documentation guidelines

3. Promotes patient and family centered care.

a. Supports the central role of the family, valuing strengths and needs in implementing child life services.

b. Acts as a resource and educates families regarding children's response to healthcare environments, coping, chronic illness and death and dying.

c. Empowers and supports patients and families to effectively self-advocate, and advocates on behalf of those who cannot do so.

d. Incorporates knowledge of cultural diversity and competence when providing services to children and families.

Teamwork and Collaboration

1. Functions as an active, contributing member of the child life department, hospital and health care team.

a. Effectively communicates child/family needs and collaborates with members of the interdisciplinary team.

b. Utilizes professional communication that is proactive and respectful to establish and maintain effective relationships with coworkers.

c. Participates in the development and execution of program goals.

d. Participates in and practices continuous quality improvement by identifying areas for improvement, offering suggestions for change, and actively engaging in the improvement process.

e. Assists in facilitating effective and developmentally appropriate community groups and program events.

2. Acts as a resource for the psychosocial needs of children and advocates for these needs within the healthcare environment and the community.

a. Assists children throughout the hospital in times of family stress. Seeks support from senior Child Life Specialists for more acute and complex consults.

b. Models developmentally appropriate care of infants, children, and youth to build capacity in medical staff, volunteers, and child life placement students.

c. Effectively represents child life to internal and external customers (i.e., media, donors, and donor relations).

d. Assists senior Child Life Specialists in developing and providing educational in-services for the healthcare team throughout the medical center.

Program Governance

1. Maintains resources for optimum utilization.

a.…